WASHINGTON—I am pleased to report considerable progress on moving key elements of ATSC 3.0 forward toward standardization. In the previous installment of this blog, I reported that documents describing the core of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer had advanced to the first approval level, which we call Candidate Standard (CS). As of this week, four more documents have been elevated to CS and published on the ATSC web site.

ATSC 3.0 will be documented in a suite of standards. The top level “parent” standard (A/300) will describe the overall system and state what must be included to create an ATSC 3.0 system. A/300 will point to a group of about 20 standards for all of the core building blocks that make up ATSC 3.0.

All ATSC standards have A/xx document numbers. For ATSC 3.0, we are beginning with A/300 and moving up from there.

Progress on Multiple Layers

The physical layer is the foundation of any wireless communications system. The two ATSC 3.0 physical layer CS documents are:

• A/321, “System Discovery and Signaling”
• A/322, “Physical Layer Standard”

Additional physical layer documents are under development.

The ATSC 3.0 physical layer allows television broadcasters to choose from a wide variety of transmission parameters so that each station can tailor its signal to best serve its local market by providing the combination of services and coverage area best suited for the market and its terrain. The system will allow high-capacity, low-robustness modes and also lower-capacity, high-robustness modes in the same transmission. This flexibility means that broadcasters can choose to offer both 4K Ultra HD broadcasts running side-by-side with robust mobile broadcasts to handheld devices. Transmission technologies can be selected for various “use cases” such as Single Frequency Networks, Multiple Input/Multiple Output channel operation, channel bonding and more; well beyond a single transmitting tower.

The physical layer for ATSC 3.0 starts every physical layer frame with a bootstrap signal that provides synchronization and signals basic information about the technology used in the physical layer itself—major and minor version, which enables graceful evolution of the physical layer itself in the future—as well as an Emergency Alert Service wake up flags, system bandwidth, time to the next frame of a similar service, and the sampling rate of the current frame. This bootstrap is extremely robust, able to be received in very challenging radio frequency conditions. The bootstrap is followed by a preamble, which carries the information needed to define the payload framing, including the information required for the receiver to acquire the data frame. The remainder of the physical layer structure is the data payload itself.

By taking advantage of recent advances in modulation, coding, error correction, constellations, and multiplexing, the ATSC 3.0 physical layer offers a wide range of operating performance points in the BICM (bit interleaver, coding, and modulation) chain that is very close to the Shannon Limit, the theoretical limit for the amount of information that can be carried in a noisy channel. The ATSC 3.0 physical layer offers broadcasters the capability to operate in a robust/lower bit-rate fashion for mobile and deep indoor services and/or a less robust/higher bit-rate fashion for services to large fixed screens in the home. If desired, the broadcaster can also operate with a simultaneous mixture of types of services using either Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) or Layer Division Multiplexing (LDM), or both. This allows broadcasters to construct their broadcast emission to support a variety of different business models and to experiment with new ones.

Work continues on the other parts of the suite of ATSC 3.0 standards as well. Four additional CS documents have just been approved and published; they are:

• A/332, “Service Announcement,” which describes announcement of services in an ATSC 3.0 broadcast.
• A/334, “Audio Watermark Emission,” which specifies the audio watermark system for ATSC 3.0.
• A/335, “Video Watermark Emission,” which specifies the emission format for video watermarks for use within ATSC 3.0 broadcasts.
• A/338, “Companion Device,” which specifies the communication protocol between an ATSC primary device—the primary receiver used to present the primary content—and an ATSC companion device that communicates with the primary device to present related, supplementary content.

These four documents represent core elements of the Management and Protocols Layer in the ATSC 3.0 system.

It is expected that six more documents will be elevated to CS status or be at ballot before the end of the year.

It is important to understand the role of the CS stage in standards development because most, perhaps all, of the documents in the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards are expected to pass through the Candidate Standard phase on their way to completion.

A Candidate Standard is a document that has received significant review within a specialist group and is ready for review by a larger group of potential implementers. Advancement of a document to CS is an explicit call to those outside of the related specialist group for implementation and technical feedback. This is the phase at which the specialist group is responsible for formally acquiring that experience, or at least defining the expectations of implementation. It is expected that following the CS period, the document will continue along toward the standardization path, which involves, typically, two additional ballot stages.

Get Involved

ATSC 3.0 represents a significant step forward in capabilities for a broadcast television system. It provides a set of flexible capabilities for broadcasters that enable new services and new business cases. The concepts of flexibility, extensibility, and scalability are in the core of the system and will allow graceful evolution over a long period of time.

Work in ATSC is open to all with a direct and material interest in the work. If you are interested in participating in any of the ongoing work of the organization, please contact the author. All ATSC Standards, Candidate Standards, and Recommended Practices can be downloaded at no charge from the ATSC Web site at http://www.atsc.org.

Also see...

December 7, 2015
"10 More Technologies Move Toward ATSC 3.0 'Candidate Standard' Status" 
Ten more standards in the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards—including video encoding, Internet Protocol transport, electronic service guides and closed captioning—are moving toward “Candidate Standard” status this month, the Advanced Television Systems Committee announced today.

October 2, 2015
"All About ATSC 3.0 (Part 2 of Many)"

The Technology Group working to develop ATSC 3.0 (TG3) has just approved the core physical layer specification as a Candidate Standard.

August 17, 2015
“All About ATSC 3.0 (Part 1 of Many)”
Please believe me when I say that work on ATSC 3.0 is not some abstract science project. This is the real deal. 

WASHINGTON—The Technology Group working to develop ATSC 3.0 (TG3) has just approved the core physical layer specification as a Candidate Standard. This document is the result of thousands of hours of work by a number of the world’s leading RF experts. The 200-plus page document describes a flexible transmission system that will serve as the foundation of next-generation television broadcasting. The ATSC document number is A/322; document numbers are a favorite shorthand for standards development organizations. Work on the physical layer has been conducted in the Specialist Group on the Physical Layer, which is chaired by Luke Fay of Sony. Back in May, the System Discovery and Signaling Candidate Standard (A/321) was approved by TG3. A/321 is a core element of ATSC 3.0.

A/321 is available on the ATSC Website now. A/322 will be posted soon.

WHY ATSC IS IMPORTANT
In order to better understand the work that led up to this important milestone, I want to provide some background on the discussions that led to the current work on ATSC 3.0 and the approval of the latest specification. Last month I talked about the importance of standards work in general and the intense work now underway on ATSC 3.0. Timing of the work was also identified as an important consideration.

This time, I want to focus on what’s in it for broadcasters and viewers.

The goals of ATSC 3.0 are to improve the television viewing experience with higher audio and video quality, reception on both fixed and mobile devices, and more accessibility, personalization and interactivity. ATSC is also addressing changing consumer behavior and preferences, providing TV content on a wide variety of devices. ATSC is working to add value to the broadcasting service platform, extending its reach and adding new business models, all without the restriction of backward compatibility with the legacy system.

It is reasonable to ask why this is worth doing. The obvious answer is that technology marches on. The DTV Standard now known as ATSC 1.0 is 20 years old, and audience expectations are changing rapidly. There are many new competitors. Disruptive forces exist. Wise use of the spectrum is essential. Business opportunities exist for leveraging the power of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband online over-the-top services.

So, what’s in it for broadcasters?
· Maintaining and building their audience
· Putting content where the viewers are
· Benefiting from new technologies
· Quantitative and qualitative growth
· Developing new revenue streams

During planning for ATSC 3.0, members spent a considerable amount of time identifying “usage scenarios,” which include the following:
· Flexible use of the spectrum
· Robustness
· Mobile services
· Ultra HD capabilities
· Hybrid services
· Multi-view/multi-screen
· 3D video content
· Enhanced and immersive audio
· Advanced accessibility
· Advanced emergency alerting
· Personalization and interactivity
· Advanced advertising and monetization
· Common world standard

Serious planning for ATSC 3.0 began back in 2010, in a planning team tasked with looking at what a next-generation system might look like. Requirements were subsequently developed based on the usage scenarios. Formal standards development work began in 2012.

TECHNICAL FEEDBACK
From the early days of work on ATSC 3.0 to now, an amazing amount of work has been accomplished. Two specifications have already advanced to the first approval level, which we call “Candidate Standard.” As defined by ATSC, a Candidate Standard (CS) is a document that has received significant review within a specialist group and is ready for review by a larger group of potential implementers. Advancement of a document to CS is an explicit call to those outside of the related specialist group for implementation and technical feedback. This is the phase at which the specialist group is responsible for formally acquiring that experience, or at least defining the expectations of implementation.

When a document is elevated to CS, the expected duration for the implementation period is also determined. A CS may be revised during this period; in fact, it is typically revised to reflect broad review and implementation experienced. It is expected that following the CS period, the document will continue along toward the standardization path, which involves—typically—two additional ballot stages.

It is important to understand the role of the CS stage in standards development because most—perhaps all—of the documents in the ATSC 3.0 suite of standards are expected to pass through the Candidate Standard phase on their way to completion. At present, two documents have been elevated to CS status, A/321, “System Discovery and Signaling;” and A/322, “Physical Layer Standard.” These two documents define the core of the ATSC 3.0 physical layer. Many more documents are under development that define other parts of the ATSC 3.0 system. At the time of this writing, four more documents are ready for consideration as Candidate Standards.

To state the obvious, the work continues at a rapid pace.

Work in ATSC is open to all with a direct and material interest in the work. If you are interested in participating in any of the ongoing work of the organization, please contact the author. All ATSC standards and recommended practices can be downloaded at no charge from the ATSC Website.

Jerry Whitaker is Vice President for Standards Development at the Advanced Television Systems Committee. He supports the work of the various ATSC technology and specialist groups and assists in the development of ATSC Standards and related documents. He currently serves as Secretary of the Technology and Standards Group and Secretary of the Technology Group on Next Generation Broadcast Television, and is closely involved in work relating to educational programs. Mr. Whitaker is a Fellow the Society of Broadcast Engineers and a Fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.

See...
September 29, 2015
“Samsung, LG, Contributed Technology to ATSC 3.0 Candidate Standard”
Samsung and LG are among the companies that contributed technologies to the broadcast transmission scheme elevated this morning to Candidate Standard status by the Advanced Television Systems Committee for ATSC 3.0.

September 29, 2015
“ATSC 3.0 Physical Layer Elevated to Candidate Standard”
Work continues on the other parts of the suite of ATSC 3.0 standards. They include Video and Audio Compression, Closed Captioning, Advanced Emergency Alerting, Security, Com panion Devices, Personalization, Applications & Interactivity, Watermarking and Fingerprinting, and Internet Protocol Delivery.

August 17, 2015
“All About ATSC 3.0 (Part 1 of Many)”
Please believe me when I say that work on ATSC 3.0 is not some abstract science project. This is the real deal.